this study guide is well written and includes all the necessary math and English review notes needed to "study" for the GMAT. The notes are helpful and worth the read before tackling the practice questions.

If you have time to spare, I would recommend using this book in combination with the GMAT official guide published by ETS (it comes with 1400 practice questions).

For those thinking about taking the GMAT, it is absolutely essential that you prepare correctly before the test, not so much in order to do some last minute memorization (there's no arcane vocabulary to memorize or anything like that), but more to get yourself familiar with the type and style of the questions, and to sharpen your skills in answering them. The style of question can be overwhelming, or in some cases, deceptive, so having a guide that breaks down the questions and instructs you on where to focus in order to arrive at the correct answer in invaluable. The Kaplan study guide does a great job at taking you through these problems. The math of the GMAT can be tricky - it requires you to think in a different way than you're used to. The guide will take you through it. More importantly, the book takes you through and explains the grammar part of the test. Most people, including myself, have terrible grammar skills but don't even know it (as I am sure this review proves), as most English teaching is pretty lax and the stuff that wasn't we didn't pay attention to anyway. The guide will take you through that all, and provides ample opportunity to practice with many, many examples. The real gem in this packages is the CD-ROM. It's not just a plain rehashing of what's in the book, as are a couple of other guides I've tried. Rather, I'd almost go so far as to say the book is almost just a rehashing of the CD. It's got interactive lessons, it's analytical, suggests areas of improvement, and even tosses out little facts (that it actually uses your imput to determine) that get you excited about taking the test. It's got a light, fun feel to it in terms of the layout and look, which can be good if you're stressing about the test. Plus, since the test is completely administered by computer nowadays, it's essential to get familiar with that form of testtaking. The book is good for practicing away from home, but you will definitely want to stick to the CD. The only reason why I knocked a star off was because the practice tests were so much harder than the real thing that it could actually discourage you. I'd suggest registering for the test early on, because they send you a CD with a couple of practice tests on it - ones that are more like the real thing. I was getting pretty dissapointing results and getting discouraged. But I took the GMAT's practice test, and scored almost 150 points higher than my Kaplan practice tests. My actual GMAT score ended up being 100 points higher than my last Kaplan test, so again, I have to question making the practices THAT difficult. But overall, a great resource that I beleive is essential to success on the GMATs.

I used thi book to prepre my GMAT and I scored 760.
There are few tests on the book in itself but the software on the CD rom is very useful.
I suggest to get also the Official guide to GMAT with the official powerprep software.

Kaplan has done a great job with this book. The techniques to solve various verbal and math problems are very helpful and one can improve his/her score if one takes this book seriously and uses it properly. You have to spend time with the book and do all the excercises if you want to get the max out of it.
I would like to see more excercises in future editions though.

Kaplan provides a good series of hard questions. Therefore, if you don't mind working from the book, you won't be disappointed. However, a "glitch" is that most Kaplan CD's do not work on Windows 2000 or NT systems!! You can call the Kaplan Technical Support line and they will tell you that many many users have this complaint, they will add your complaint to the list, and then advise that you find an older computer or sign up for a Kaplan course if you would like on-line or CD access. (They will apologize too if that makes you feel better.) Therefore, yes good questions if you can get to them!!